American Go E-Journal » 2016 » January

Three of the eight competitors in the recent 2015 AGA Professional Qualifying tournament are players from the AGA City League. They are tournament winner Eric Lui 1p of the Greater Washington team, Aaron Ye (Bay Area team) and Jeremy Chiu (San Francisco 1 team). Ye (right) gave Eric Lui (left) a tough challenge in the final matches of the tournament. Other professionals who play in the AGA City League are Ryan Li 1p (2014 AGA professional, Canwa Vancouver 1 team), Tim Song 1p (Greater Washington), and Huiren Yang 1p (Boston).- Steve Colburn; photo by Chris Garlock

Round three of the AGA City League will take place this Sunday, January 24 at 3p EST. Throughout the day you can catch your local and favorite players from around the US and Canada. Check the schedules for each league to see when they are playing: League A, League B, League C.

Round three will have a game review from Hajin Lee 3p. Watch all of the live coverage on Pandanet app on your Windows, OSX, linux 32bit and 64bit, iOS, or android. Games will be played in the ‘AGA City League’ and ‘AGA City League (Manual)’ Rooms.- Steve Colburn

Mark Lee’s year is off to a strong start. In the ultimate game of the 2016 San Diego Go Championship — held January 10 — Lee 7d beat UCSD freshman Weihan Huai, a professional from China, in the Open section, to become the first non-UCSD student to win the annual event. Lee’s win came just a week after he won the sixth annual Jin Chen Memorial Tournament in Seattle on January 3. With twelve dan-level players in the San Diego Open division, this was the largest and strongest field to play in the five-year-old event.

In the handicap section Sam Tregar 5k, Luke Weatherby 8k and James Acres 1k all had perfect 3-0 records with Tregar winning the title on tie-breaker over the 18 contestants.

Players came from as far as Los Angeles and Phoenix, to enjoy a day of fierce competition. The tournament was co-hosted by the San Diego Go Club and the UCSD Go Club.

An added bonus was that newly minted AGA pro Eric Lui 1P dropped in to observe, comment and join half the contestants for the post-games dinner at a local Japanese restaurant.

The first Japan Go Congress will be held July 15 through 18 in Takarazuka, Japan, and organised by the Kansai Ki-in. In addition to a main tournament, the Congress — at which 200-300 participants are expected — will offer a variety of side events such as lectures, teaching games with professionals, and other traditional Japanese games. Famous for its Grand Theater, Takarazuka is also known as the “city of opera.” Situated northwest of Osaka, it is outside of typical urban tension, but still easily accessible. Available accommodations include Daikin Dormitory, the Takarazuka Inn Hotel and the Takarazuka Hotel; click here for details. “The Kansai Ki-in warmly welcomes players from abroad,” reports their Go Congress Team.

Just before the Japan Go Congress, the 4th Osaka Go Camp — also organized by the Kansai Ki-in — will be held from June 26 to July 14. Last year there were more than 70 participants at the camp, where “You can train with professionals in a cozy environment and do sight-seeing,” report organizers.

Weiqi Teacher Needed in Maryland: The Hope Chinese School is looking for a go teacher for a Saturday afternoon class, reports Edward Zhang. “It’s a great school with several hundred students registered.” The class is at Winston Churchill High School, 11300 Gainsborough Road, Potomac, MD 20854. Hourly rate is at least $23; contact Ms. He 703-585-7164.

Go Photo: “Young Buddhas playing the game we love,” writes Richard Simon. Snapped January 08 on Roosevelt Ave. near Main St., Flushing, NY in a store window by Felice Simon.

Turing, Mrs Morcom and Go: “Not sure if anyone has submitted this one,” writes John Hager, “but in the book ‘Alan Turing: The Enigma‘ (chapter 3) it mentions that Turing taught his friend’s mother, Mrs. Morcom, to play go. “Also mentioned (is that) not much go (was) played at Princeton when Alan Turing was in residence.”Speaking of Princeton, we have it on good authority that this year’s New Jersey Open — the 57th — will be held March 19-20; details should be posted on our calendar soon.

Taranu’s Timing: “Aren’t you forgetting Romania’s Catalin Taranu?” writes Michael Alford. (Our “Finland’s Tormanen becomes pro shodan, 12/30 Power Report” said that Tormanen “is the first Westerner to become a professional at the Nihon Ki-in since the late Hans Pietsch 6P in 1997.”) “I think Catalin became Nihon Kiin pro in 1998. Catalin is 5p.”The Igo Nenkan (the Yearbook put out by the Ki-in) just gives 1997 as the year both Pietsch and Taranu became pros. Go World 79 (page 9) has more details. Catalin Taranu won the qualifying tournament at the Nagoya branch of the Nihon Ki-in and became pro 1-dan in April (probably as of April 1, as that is the usual practice, but this is not specified). Go World says: “Catalin was followed by Hans Pietsch at the Tokyo branch of the Nihon Ki-in. . . . Hans was given special permission to become professional shodan and he made his debut in late April.” So Hans is the most recent before Antti, though just by a matter of weeks. Btw, Catalin, like Michael Redmond, became pro the legitimate way, strictly through competition. (They are the only two. None of the Western pros at the Korean Ki-in made it through competition.) Hans Pietsch, Manfred Wimmer, and James Kerwin were all given special permission to become pro. However, the probationary status is regularized when you gain promotion, as Wimmer and Hans did. Hans earned promotion to 4-dan on merit. – John Power

Wrong Rank: “…this is mostly tongue in cheek,” writes Keith Arnold. “In your nice thank you article (AGA Pro Tourney: Final Results and Team Credits) you got one of the ranks wrong. You list ‘Eric Lui 7d’…missed your first chance to say ’1p’ Had to do it.”

In February, a strong North American Go team will head to Huai-An in Eastern China’s Jiangsu Province, for the first ever International Mind Sports Association Elite Mind Games. Mingjiu Jiang 7p and Eric Lui 1p of the US, along with Ryan Li 1p and Sarah Yu 6d of Canada will play from Feb. 24 to March 4 in the city of five million. The three men will play in a men’s team competition against teams from Europe, China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, while Yu, who just competed in Los Angeles as the first woman candidate for AGA pro, will play in a 12-player woman’s individual tournament. Yu and a male player will also take part in a three-round pair go knockout. The IMSA Elite Mind Games are similar in format to the SportAccord World Mind Games, which took place each December from 2011 to 2014 but not in 2015.

The second Australian Go Congress kicks off this Friday, January 15 and runs through the 19th at the Sydney Parramatta Novotel in Parramatta, NSW, Australia. The main tournament will be played over five days; in addition there will be other competitions, lessons and opportunities to play simultaneous games against some of the world’s top professional players. There is a substantial prize and gift pool across different divisions.

The Congress will be held in the heart of Parramatta, close to the central business district, restaurants and cafés. It is also close to Parramatta’s shopping centre and public transport. It takes just 30 minutes by train to reach Sydney’s Harbour Bridge, Opera House, harbour, casino and more.

Mark Lee won the sixth annual Jin Chen Memorial Tournament, held at the Seattle Go Center on January 3. Lee (in yellow shirt) was visiting from California; readers may remember that he was undefeated in the U.S. Open in 2014. Dong (David) Ma placed 2nd in the Open Section of the Jin Chen, which had eight players. The Handicapped Sections had 20 players. The Dan Handicapped Section was won by Zhihong Yao, with Dengda (Dan) Tang placing 2nd. The SDK section was won by John Johnson, with Eric Backus placing 2nd. The DDK section was won by Elan Ma, with Michael Hixenbaugh placing second. Elan Ma, who was undefeated in her games, also won the Youth Prize.
- photo/report by Brian Allen

In the final set of games in the AGA Professional Qualification Tournament on Saturday morning, Andrew Lu defeated Daniel Gourdeau and Jeremy Chiu beat Sarah Yu. Lu took third place and a seeded place in the next pro tournament, Gourdeau was fourth, Chiu is fifth and Yu sixth.

Thanks to the entire E-Journal team for bringing this week-long event to the world. Dennis Wheeler not only did his usual stellar job recording games, cleaning up game records and helping manage the team, but took on new responsibilities for producing our series of game highlight videos, which I think you’ll agree are an excellent addition to our coverage. The game recording team included regular LA volunteers Richard Dolen and Joe Cepiel, with the welcome addition of Greg Kulevich and Esther Jun, who both did a terrific job. The commentary team included Myungwan Kim 9P, Tyler Oyakawa 6d, Norman Tsai7d and I-han Lui 7d, who all did excellent work drawing out key lessons for our series of brief videos. Andrew Jackson provided tech support for the videos and Steve Colburn kept the tournament page and crosstab updated. Thanks to Akane Negishi and her team of admins at KGS for their support, as always.

Many thanks as well to the staff of the Hotel Normandie, its architect and go enthusiast Jingbo Lou and the folks at Cassell’s who generously provided not only a calm and elegant venue but all the help we needed and water and coffee when we were thirsty.

Special thanks to Tournament Director Jeff Shaevel for ensuring the event’s smooth operation throughout the week — as he has each year — and a very special thanks to AGA president Andy Okun, who not only coordinated the entire event with Myungwan Kim 9P, but was always there taking care of the myriad details, both tiny and big, to make the event a success, including assuming game recording duties when needed.

Of course, the biggest thanks goes to the eight players who gave it their all this week — Eric Lui 7d, Ben Lockhart 7d (who also participated in a video commentary), Aaron Ye 7d, Andrew Lu 7d, Daniel Gourdeau 6d, Jeremy Chiu 6d, Sarah Yu 6d, and Manuel Velasco 5d — they are all a credit to the game and an inspiration to go players of all levels.

Finally, if you’re interested in being on the E-Journal team at future events — it’s a lot of fun and a great way to improve your game — send us an email at journal@usgo.org.- Chris Garlock, Managing Editor, American Go E-Journal; photo by Garlock

For Eric Lui, the fourth time was the charm. Lui (left) has played in all four AGA Professional Qualification Tournaments, losing to Ryan Li in last year’s final, but on Friday afternoon he became the American Go Association’s fifth professional, defeating Aaron Ye by resignation to close out a near-flawless performance this week with a 9-1 score, his only loss a half-pointer in the first round. “It’s been a long week,” Lui told the E-Journal immediately after clinching his win, “but it feels really good. The field was stronger this year.” Lui said that he fully intends to pursue a career as a professional. “Now I have some decisions to make,” he said, smiling tiredly. “Not right away, but soon.” For amateur players who want to get stronger, the new professional’s advice was to “Play a lot of games. Preferably in person, and fast games.”

“Eric’s determination and steadiness are a real inspiration,” said AGA President Andy Okun, who was on hand all week at the Los Angeles tournament. “It heartens me to see his efforts rewarded.”

Ye, in his first pro qualifier, turned in a strong performance with an 8-4 record, taking second place and earning a slot as a seed in the next qualification tournament. In the lower bracket, Ben Lockhart clinched 7th place by beating Manuel Velasco, who finished in 8th place. Andrew Lu defeated Daniel Gourdeau on Friday afternoon, so they’ll play a third-game decider on Saturday morning, as will Sarah Yu and Jeremy Chiu. Lu and Gourdeau will battle for third place, while Yu and Chiu will compete for fifth; the games start at 9:30a Pacific Time on KGS. Full tournament details here; click here for video game highlights.- report/photo by Chris Garlock